Life Questions

"Jesus’ questions focused almost entirely on living faithfully in response to the gospel now." Marc Cortez makes a great point.

Here are some questions Jesus asked:
Do you really think it’s that impressive if you’re nice to people who are just like you?
Why are you anxious about little things like clothing?
Why do you spend so much time considering the flaws of other people and ignoring your own?
Why are you afraid?
Why do you think about evil things all the time?
Do you believe that I can do this?
Who is truly a part of my family?
Why did you doubt?
Who do people say that I am?
What could you possibly give in exchange for your life?
Can you endure what I will have to endure?
What do you want me to do for you?

Is it true, I wonder, if religious-minded folks can get so focused on the future (after-this-life) that they miss out on the present?

The gospel, as much as it is for life beyond now, is very much for life right now.

We must live in the present (there really is no other reality in which to live.) Soak in healthy relationships. Slow down enough to notice what is going on around us. Find activities we enjoy doing and friends with whom we enjoy doing those activities.

Take the questions Jesus asked others, and turn the questioning mirror a bit to our own lives. Which questions seems to resonate with you right now? Journal how you would answer some of those questions. I wonder what gifts are in store as we contemplate the answers.

Contemplative Spirituality: Praying the Psalms

The spiritual practice of praying the Psalms has a long line of history to it in the Church. The Book of Psalms has long been thought of as the Church's prayer book. It provides rich, deep material for our souls to linger and savor as we approach the throne of God in prayer. Read the passages slowly, linger silently in your spirit as you form your own prayers around the words of the Psalm you pray through.

Psalm 43 is a good place to start. Try praying with your Bible in front of you and your journal close by to capture any prayers you want to return to, to record any thoughts about God you feel are strong in your spirit, or to just allow you to slow down as you write out the Psalm as you're praying.

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
  against an ungodly people,
 from the deceitful and unjust man
  deliver me!
 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
  why have you rejected me?
 Why do I go about mourning
  because of the oppression of the enemy?
 
 Send out your light and your truth;
  let them lead me;
 let them bring me to your holy hill
  and to your dwelling!
 Then I will go to the altar of God,
  to God my exceeding joy,
 and I will praise you with the lyre,
  O God, my God.
 
 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
  and why are you in turmoil within me?
 Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
  my salvation and my God.

(Psalm 43 ESV)

Lenten Reflections: Formation of the Soul Through Suffering

Nobody wants to suffer. It would be dysfunctional and unhealthy to pursue pain and torment. Nothing is earned when one causes undue harm on others or their own life. The reality of life, though, is that suffering happens to all of us; whether it is caused by one's own poor choices or the choices of others suffering comes to all of us.

What we do with that suffering makes all the difference. Do we embrace a work of God in the midst of trials and pain or do we run from the pain? Will we be formed and transformed through the fire or will be turned into a bitter, burnt person? How a person has prepared in the contemplative spiritual practices in their life will determine how the transforming power of suffering will transform them.

Here are 36 powerfully transforming truths of suffering . . .from Paul Tautges (www.counselingoneanother.com). Spend some time journaling these statements. Meditate on the Scriptures provided. Think through where you are in your life and what God wants to do in you so that, as a result of the difficulty you face, He can do more through you.

1. Suffering is used to increase our awareness of the sustaining power of God to whom we owe our sustenance (Ps 68:19).
2. God uses suffering to refine, perfect, strengthen, and keep us from falling (Ps 66:8-9; Heb 2:10).
3. Suffering allows the life of Christ to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor 4:7-11).
4. Suffering bankrupts us, making us dependent upon God (2 Cor 12:9).
5. Suffering teaches us humility (2 Cor 12:7).
6. Suffering imparts the mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-11).
7. Suffering teaches us that God is more concerned about character than comfort (Rom 5:3-4; Heb 12:10-11).
8. Suffering teaches us that the greatest good of the Christian life is not absence of pain, but Christlikeness (2 Cor 4:8-10; Rom 8:28-29).
9. Suffering can be a chastisement from God for sin and rebellion (Ps 107:17).
10. Obedience and self-control are from suffering (Heb 5:8; Ps 119:67; Rom 5:1-5; James 1:2-8; Phil 3:10).
11. Voluntary suffering is one way to demonstrate the love of God (2 Cor 8:1-2, 9).
12. Suffering is part of the struggle against sin (Heb 12:4-13).
13. Suffering is part of the struggle against evil men (Ps 27:12; 37:14-15).
14. Suffering is part of the struggle for the kingdom of God (2 Thess 1:5).
15. Suffering is part of the struggle for the gospel (2 Tim 2:8-9).
16. Suffering is part of the struggle against injustice (1 Pet 2:19).
17. Suffering is part of the struggle for the name of Christ (Acts 5:41; 1 Pet 4:14).
18. Suffering indicates how the righteous become sharers in Christ’s suffering (2 Cor 1:5; 1 Pet 4:12-13).
19. Endurance of suffering is given as a cause for reward (2 Cor 4:17; 2 Tim 2:12).
20. Suffering forces community and the administration of the gifts for the common good (Phil 4:12-15).
21. Suffering binds Christians together into a common or joint purpose (Rev 1:9).
22. Suffering produces discernment, knowledge, and teaches us God’s statutes (Ps 119:66-67, 71).
23. Through suffering God is able to obtain our broken and contrite spirit which He desires (Ps 51:16-17).
24. Suffering causes us to discipline our minds by making us focus our hope on the grace to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:6, 13).
25. God uses suffering to humble us so He can exalt us at the proper time (1 Pet 5:6-7).
26. Suffering teaches us to number our days so we can present to God a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:7-12).
27. Suffering is sometimes necessary to win the lost (2 Tim 2:8-10; 4:5-6).
28. Suffering strengthens and allows us to comfort others who are weak (2 Cor 1:3-11).
29. Suffering is small compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8).
30. God desires truth in our innermost being and one way He does it is through suffering (Ps 51:6; 119:17).
31. The equity for suffering will be found in the next life (Ps 58:10-11).
32. Suffering is always coupled with a greater source of grace (2 Tim 1:7-8; 4:16-18).
33. Suffering teaches us to give thanks in times of sorrow (1 Thess 5:17; 2 Cor 1:11).
34. Suffering increases faith (Jer 29:11).
35. Suffering allows God to manifest His care (Ps 56:8).
36. Suffering stretches our hope (Job 13:14-15).

Reflections at Lent

A friend of mine sent me an article that has proven helpful to him during the season of Lent. I was enriched by this so I want to share it here.

Sunday of Forgiveness - Great Lent: A Season of Spiritual Springtime

"Thus saith the Lord Almighty; there shall,be fasts in the House of Judah unto joy and gladness and unto feasts goodly, cheering, and joysome" (cf. Zacharias 8:19)

a. In the Paschal Vigil, the decisive criterion in our experiencing a personal Resurrection-Renewal will not be the maintenance of the Fast, but mutual love; the practice of sympathy and empathy; sensitivity before the misfortune of our brother; the rebuilding of our person relationships with Christ.
b. The Great Fast is not a Great Desert, in which we wander, beleaguered for forty days. But it is a stroll through the Garden of the Kingdom, unique in beauty and comeliness.
c. Nature's Spring coincides with the Springtime of Lent: "The Springtime of the Fast hath dawned, as hath the Blossom of Repentance.
d. In the Lenten Springtime:

• our hearts are warmed and enlightened through prayer-fasting-almsgiving;

•  we return to our fervent and radiant relationship with God and our fellow man;
•  we rise above self-centeredness, that is, we remove ourselves from the center of our attention;
•  we open the realm of our hearts, such that they overflow with God and our brother.

+ Bishop Cyprian of Oreoi

From Loss to Found: Walking in my True Self

2013 was a year of much loss, and in some ways, much gain for me. There was so much I went through in my marriage, in my family of origin, in the interior of my life and also in the physical exterior (see picture below). But what was taken in loss and heartache was used to fill me up with peace and the goodness of God.

So, I changed my focus in my graduate studies from an MDiv in Leadership to an MA in Christian Formation & Soul Care. The concepts and practices I am studying resonate so strongly with my core values, it feels as if I have come home from a lifetime of lost wandering. So much of the people pleasing that caused emotional and spiritual dysfunction really seems to have been unloaded through the suffering of loss; replaced by significant peace and knowledge of contemplative practices that heal, restore and invigorate. It seems to have impact on everything; let me give you an example of how it has impacted one area of my life: philosophy of ministry.

After 22 years of lay and vocational ministry experience, my philosophy of ministry is moving from the emphasis on discipling the Body of Christ to service experience of God  (what God wants to do through us) to the emphasis on journeying with the Body of Christ to the experiencing ministry of God (what God wants to do in us); helping people to BE a child of God so that what He does in us will manifest through us. In other words, walking with people to be the person God created them to be so that they do what they were created to do.

It has also had an impact on me physically. . . I've included a picture to show how the LORD has brought me to a place of walking in my true self physically. I lost over 70 pounds.

It has impacted my vocational identity . . . as I spent time in prayer/fasting/Scripture last fall, the LORD gave me Psalm 27:4 as the Scripture foundation of my vocational calling in pastoral ministry:

 One thing have I asked of the LORD,
  that will I seek after:
 that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
  all the days of my life,
 to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
  and to inquire in his temple.

(Psalm 27:4 ESV)

It was an exciting year, 2013. And I am SO glad it is over.

Here's to a new year, 2014. Perhaps I can be more disciplined on this blog than I have in the past.